May You Live in Interesting Times

Allegedly the title of this dispatch is a Chinese proverb (apparently it is not). Some say it’s a curse. I use it as an opener to my talk about exponential technologies (which I am turning into a richer learning experience soon).

Whatever the source – we truly do live in interesting times. The most interesting times yet…

Take one simple example:

That iPhone sitting in your pocket is the exact equivalent of a Cray X-MP supercomputer from twenty years ago that used to cost ten million dollars. It’s got the same operating system software, the same processing speed, the same data storage, compressed down to a six-hundred-dollar device.

And this is just one example. Your digital camera has 16 megapixel, your internet connection is faster than 10 Mbit/sec, Facebook connects you to more than 1.5BN people globally and Google gives you access to more information than Bill Clinton had when he was the President of the United States.

With this: What are you going to build today?

The Heretic Blog – Pascal Finnete